ULTRA QUIET VACUUM CLEANER

Abstract: An ultra-quiet vacuum cleaner system having an active noise controller (26) adapted to measure with microphones (28), (29) the noise generated by the system and to provide via a speaker (27) an equal counter-noise to thereby attenuate the generated noise. The system also includes designing the coupling (22) between the bag cavity (20) and the motor chamber (23) and the motor chamber (23) itself as structures for reducing noise.

Description: ULTRA QUIET VACUUM CLEANER Background and Summary of the Invention The term vacuum cleaner can encompass a wide variety of appliances that use negative pressure to collect various solids and even liquids into a collection area for disposal. This invention relates to vacuum cleaners of all sizes that need to reduce broad band noise, with or without tonal components present. The heart of any vacuum cleaner is the motor/blower unit. This is typically a universal motor with one or more stages of fan blades attached. A typical household unit might be a two horsepower motor with a two stage backward curved fan system. One fan might have 6 blades and the other 7. On the inlet side of the motor/blower is the bag cavity area. Here, the negative pressure developed by the motor/blower is transferred to the hose and nozzle by the bag volume. There may be one or more filters in addition to the bag to keep dust and large particles from damaging the motor/blower. The outlet of the motor/blower is exhausted to the environment usually through some type of dust filter. Previous vacuum designs had size, weight, and performance, but seldom noise, as the primary concerns. Designing a vacuum cleaner solely from a noise point of view clearly separates the noise sources. These sources can be attacked with the most cost effective means, either using active, passive or a combination of the two. The following patents describe the active noise control system used and are hereby incorporated by reference herein; U.S. Patent No.- 5,091,953 to Tretter, U.S. Patent No. 5,105,377 to Ziegler and U.S. Patent No. 4,878,188 to Zeigler. This invention incorporates several of the techniques and apparatus described to actively cancel noise produced by the vacuum. In summary, the vacuum cleaner designed following the teachings of this invention, using passive and active noise control methods, has resulted in a vacuum cleaner with superior acoustic performance and comparable hydraulic performance to similar units. Random broad band noise, tonal noise or a combination of both can be reduced depending on the exact configuration of the vacuum cleaner. The noise sources in the newly designed vacuum cleaner are as follows: 1. Nozzle 2. Hose 3. Bag Cavity 4. Coupling 5. Motor/Blower 6. Exhaust Area The nozzle and hose will not be addressed in this invention. After the other noise sources are reduced, the nozzle and hose are the major noise sources in the vacuum. Further reductions in noise level will result by redesigning these two components. Currently, this vacuum design is 10 dBA quieter than similar production vacuums on the market today (Figure la). Figure lb is the active reduction of 8 dBA Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a vacuum cleaner that employs active noise control. Another object of this invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner that employs both active and passive noise control. A further object of this invention is to provide acoustic design and isolation techniques on the bag cavity, motor/blower area and coupling on a vacuum cleaner to provide cost effective active noise control thereto. These and other objects will become apparent when reference is had to the accompanying drawings in which Figures la and lb are graphs showing the noise reduction the invention provides, passive and active respectively, versus a standard vacuum cleaner. Figure 2 is an elevation view of a vacuum cleaner showing major active noise control components. Figure 3 is a plan view of the vacuum cleaner of Figure 2, and Figure 4 is a schematic view of the active noise cancellation system of this invention. Detailed Description of the Invention Referring to Figures 2 and 3 the bag cavity 20 area is essentially an acoustically designed muffler. A muffler can be described as a section of duct or pipe shaped to reduce the transmission of sound while allowing the free flow of air. The vacuum inlet muffler must meet acoustical, aerodynamic, geometrical and mechanical criteria. The acoustic criteria specifies the amount of noise reduction required from the muffler as a function of frequency. Aerodynamically, the muffler should produce the minimum pressure drop so that the smallest rated motor/blower unit can be used. As will be mentioned later, using a smaller rated motor/blower unit 21 will result in quieter noise levels. The muffler should also possess the smallest practical dimensions. Since muffler acoustic characteristics are highly dependent on geometry, there will be a tradeoff between muffler performance and geometry. The muffler must be mechanically sound as well, meaning that it must have enough structural rigidity so the wall will not collapse due to the negative pressure in the bag cavity area. In addition, acoustic foam used to line the surface of the muffler must have a cleanable, puncture resistant surface in case the bag breaks. The muffler is basically a combination reactive/dissipative type muffler. The geometry of the muffler determines the acoustical performance of the reactive portion of the muffler. In principle, the acoustic energy traveling through the pipe is reflected back towards the source because of the impedance mismatch created by a change in cross- sectional area. The acoustic performance of the dissipative portion of the muffler is determined by the absoφtion properties of the acoustic material used to line the inside of the muffler. The coupling 22 between the bag cavity 20 and motor chamber 23 is a flexible rubber tube. This tube helps quiet the vacuum in two ways. First, the tube provides a smooth flow path for the air that minimizes the noise produced by turbulence and separation. It is important that air flow coming into the entrance of the blower (fan) be as uniform as possible in order to keep fan noise to a minimum and fan efficiency at a maximum. Secondly, the flexible coupling 22 reduces the transmission of structural vibrations from the motor chamber to the bag cavity (muffler) walls. This is achieved through the large impedance difference between the motor chamber structure and the flexible coupling 22. Because the coupling is lower in impedance, it reflects the structural vibration wave back towards the source. Obviously, the greater the impedance mismatch, the greater the attenuation of structure borne noise will be. However, the hose must be rigid enough to withstand the negative pressure created by the vacuum motor 21. The motor chamber 23 is the most important part of the vacuum acoustic design because it houses the primary noise source of the vacuum, the motor/blower unit 21. This motor chamber isolates the motor from the rest of the vacuum both acoustically and structurally by incorporating a sealed chamber design. It is important that all transmission paths be treated with some noise reduction method or else a sound "short" will exist allowing the acoustic or vibration energy to escape to the surrounding medium. The only openings are for the flow of air at the inlet coupling and the exhaust duct. In essence, these represent acoustic sound shorts but they have been minimized by this design. On the inlet side, the use of a flexible coupling and cross-sectional area change impede the transfer of the acoustic energy to the bag cavity 20. In the exhaust duct, the use of passive materials and active noise cancellation reduce motor noise significantly. Motor/blower noise is comprised of both discrete frequency and broad band noise. Discrete frequency signals are produced by the electrical line frequency and its harmonics, the fundamental shaft frequency and harmonics, and the blade passing frequency of the fan(s) and harmonics. Broad band noise is produced by turbulent air flow over the motor cage and other surrounding discontinuities. The nature of the noise will dictate the noise control method to be used for the motor/blower chamber. High frequency noise, typically above 2000 Hz, can be attenuated using simplistic passive noise control methods. Acoustic foam is used to absorb the acoustic energy and convert into mechanical energy (i.e., heat) for the high frequency noise attenuation. This method is effective because the wavelengths of the sound are short in this frequency region allowing them to penetrate the material. However, low frequency noise must be attenuated using a more complex method because of the longer wavelengths tend to pass through the material. The use of massive and/or thick material will stop the transmission of the longer wavelengths. Thus, the material chosen for the motor chamber is a decoupled absorber/barrier. The barrier is massive enough to reduce low frequency noise while the absorber reduces the high frequency. Air used to cool the motor is vented through an exhaust duct 25. The exhaust is vented out the back away from the operator to minimize the noise the operator hears. The duct 25 is attached to the motor chamber 23 and extends past the length of the chamber. This design puφosely forces motor noise into the duct because this vacuum, unlike any existing vacuum design, utilizes active noise cancellation to cancel the low frequency noise that is not addressed by passive noise control measures. The duct 25 is a primary source of noise because of the turbulent flow in the duct and discrete frequency motor noise. As previously discussed in the design of the motor chamber, passive noise control works for the high frequency. In this case, acoustic foam lines the ductwork to attenuate the high frequency. For low frequency control, active noise cancellation is employed for the first time on a vacuum. Active noise control is necessary for the low frequency because passive noise control methods would require very thick and massive materials that would cause the vacuum to be bigger and heavier than necessary. Microphones 28,29 are placed along the exhaust duct and act as a noise and residual error sensor, respectively, to sense noise to be canceled and to provide feedback. The active canceling noise is introduced via speaker 27 to counter the existing noise in the duct and is run by controller 26. Take up reel 24 is located between the speaker and the motor chamber. Controller 26 houses the power supply and processor having the cancellation algorithm. Having described the invention it will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many changes and modification can be made without departing from the scope o the appended claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A vacuum cleaner system adapted for quiet operation, said system comprising an inlet means adapted to allow for the intake of solids and liquids, motor/blower means associated with said inlet means and adapted to provide negative pressure at said inlet means to facilitate the intake of said solids and liquids, collection means associated with said inlet means so as to collect solids and liquids that are drawn into said inlet means by said negative pressure, active noise control means associated with said system and adapted to measure the noise generated by said system and to produce an equal counter noise so as to reduce the system generated noise. 2. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 1 wherein said inlet means includes a cavity area which is acoustically designed to produce the lowest pressure drop and the cross sectional area of the inlet means is adapted to impede the transfer of the acoustic energy to the cavity. 3. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 1 wherein said motor/blower means includes a sealed chamber means which is adapted to isolate the motor from the remainder of the vacuum system both acoustically and structurally. 4. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 3 wherein said chamber means has an air inlet and an exhaust outlet. 5. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 4 wherein said chamber air inlet is connected to said cavity means by a flexible coupling to provide for a smooth flow to minimize noise produced by turbulence and separation and to reduce structural vibrations. 6. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 5 wherein there is a large impedance difference between said chamber and said flexible coupling. 7. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 5 wherein said chamber means is constructed as a decoupled absorber/barrier which allows for reduction of low frequency noise while absorbing high frequency noise. 8. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 1 and including an exhaust duct means which conducts cooling air used to cool said motor/blower means out of said system. 9. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 8 wherein said active noise control means includes sensing means in the path of air passing through said exhaust duct means to . sense the noise and introduce it to said control means. 10. A vacuum cleaner system as in claim 9 and also including a speaker means located in said exhaust duct means to allow for counter noise to interdict the motor/blower produced noise to cancel it.

Inventors: ARNOLD MICHAEL F, NOWICKI CHRISTOPHER P, SMITH DEXTER G, ARNOLD, MICHAEL, F., NOWICKI, CHRISTOPHER, P., SMITH, DEXTER, G.
Applicants: NOISE CANCELLATION TECH, NOISE CANCELLATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: A47L9
IPC codes: A47L9